


Daily Life : Not Available

by AmkiTakk



Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mystery, Original Character(s), Post-デュラララ!!×２ 結 | Durarara!!x2 Ketsu, References to both SH and the Izaya novels, Slow Burn, Trippy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:49:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 19,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26425927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmkiTakk/pseuds/AmkiTakk
Summary: Shizuo and Izaya wake up to a completely deserted Tokyo, with no clue as to what happened. The two sworn enemies band together to solve the mystery of an emptied city and find out what, or who caused this…
Relationships: Heiwajima Shizuo & Orihara Izaya, Heiwajima Shizuo/Orihara Izaya
Comments: 20
Kudos: 134
Collections: Shizaya*





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Had a sudden idea for a plotty fic. Never wrote one before so we'll see how that turns out hahaha

When he opened his eyes, a few things surprised Shizuo.

Firstly, not only had he woken up before his alarm (saving the poor alarm clock from certain doom), but it seemed he had also forgotten to even set said alarm. Good thing he woke up before the usual time, or he might have overslept and been late for work, and while he was sure Tom would let it slide as he usually did for most things Shizuo did, he didn't want to let his boss down again.

He emerged from bedsheets that were halfway to the ground, feeling well-rested. After leaving the bed, he hastily folded the sheets and left his bedroom, still in his sleepwear (which comprised nothing but sweatpants) to go do his morning ritual in the bathroom, only to pause in the tiny living room-slash-kitchen.

“It's so quiet…” Shizuo mused, voice barely louder than a whisper.

_'How nice'_ , he thought. Usually at this hour his neighbors would loudly start getting ready for the day, and a few cars would pass on the road near his apartment complex. Heiwajima Shizuo, as his name implied, was a man who loved peace and quiet; it was nice to wake up to pure quiet once in a while.

He grabbed his lighter and a cigarette from the pack on the coffee table and lit it as he walked to the sliding glass door, opening it to go on the small balcony. He spent a few minutes smoking there, leaning on the railing, not really thinking of anything. This would've been perfect with a pleasant breeze, he thought absent mindedly.

_'This is nice'_ , he told himself again, _'but…'_

This felt too quiet.

He frowned, leaving the now-finished cigarette in an ashtray he left on the ground of the balcony.

'Well, whatever', he thought as he turned around and got back inside to continue getting ready for the day. 'I'm just not used to this much quiet, I guess.'

...

Izaya was used to waking up in a silent, empty apartment as soon as dawn broke. He had always been used to the quiet since his early childhood (though it had gotten significantly less quiet when his sisters were born), so today wasn't any different from any other day. He woke up with the gentle light of the rising sun, having no need for any alarm thanks to his always so diligent biological clock. Handy, that thing, always on time; he wouldn't have it any other way, or would he really be his wonderful, always timely self?

This morning, he felt surprisingly energized considering he had worked till 4 AM and had gotten at most two hours of sleep. Well, wouldn't be the first time he pulled an all-nighter while looking for information.

He sat up in his queen-sized bed and stretched his arms and legs before getting up and out of bed. He made sure the bed was all neat and proper before heading for the bathroom connected to his bedroom.

He passed in front of the mirror without even bothering to look at himself and immediately went to the shower, removing his pajamas (black, and made of the softest, highest quality material, of course) and underwear (black as well, obviously), throwing them in the laundry basket. He then turned on the water, waiting a few seconds for it to heat up, then stepped inside and under the wonderfully warm water.

In the vast apartment, the only sound that could be heard was that of running water on the second floor, until eventually that sound too, stopped, and out stepped a squeaky-clean and freshly dried Orihara Izaya clad in a soft bathrobe and white bunny slippers, which he totally bought two matching pairs of to annoy his hard-working secretary and not because he found them adorable. Yep, totally. Yup. Uh-huh.

(He really did buy the other pair to annoy Namie though, expecting her to refuse to even look at them, but she decided to wear them anyway to spite him. That woman would never stop amusing him.)

He stepped down to the bottom floor in his kitchen and made himself some black coffee (“Like your soul” he could hear Mairu's shrill voice comment. He huffed in amusement at the memory) then left the kitchen with the steaming cup. He walked past the couch to go behind his desk, stopping in front of the immense glass windows with a smile.

That smile quickly fell, however.

“What? No cars? Did they block off the road?” He looked around, finding the street below devoid of any of his lovely humans. “Not even an early jogger? Boring.” He said, but his frown wasn't one borne of boredom.

The reason Izaya moved to Shinjuku in the first place (aside from distancing his business from a certain raging blond) was because the city never slept. From his place at the very top of the building, Izaya could see masses milling about at any hour of the day.

Yet there was nothing. Not a single person. Not even any stray animal. The only living things in his field of vision were the occasional tree and himself.

He put the coffee cup on the desk behind him and reached for his work phone nearby.

“Well, if nobody can entertain me down there, guess I'll have to make Namie come in earlier to annoy her!” He said to no one in particular with faked enthusiasm, grin way too sharp and voice so excessively joyous it was obviously fake.


	2. Chapter 2

There was nobody in the streets. No wonder it had been so quiet, so still.

Shizuo didn't like this. This was strange, uncomfortable, wrong.

He stopped on the side of a road completely empty save for a few parked cars and got his phone out. Had there been some evacuation order he hadn't heard while he was asleep?

Nope, no new messages. He almost shut his phone back off before he noticed something.

No signal.

Shizuo frowned. He shut off his phone, put it in his pocket, and went back to walking aimlessly, hoping to meet someone, anyone who could explain just what was going on already?!

He walked past a park and did a double-take when he noticed the fountain he had angrily ripped off and thrown the day before in one piece and back to doing its job of spewing water all day.

“Damn, they already repaired it? That was fast.” He mumbled, mindlessly scratching his hair as he felt the very familiar guilt surging up.

“Aah, I messed up again…”

He turned around and started walking away from the park and the diligently working fountain. He instead headed to what were usually the more populated streets of Ikebukuro, only to find just as much populace as there was near his apartment complex, which was none.

Where was everyone, damn it?! They couldn't have just disappeared like that, couldn't they?! Like what, the entire population of Ikebukuro except Shizuo himself got abducted by aliens or someth–?

Shizuo paused.

“Wait, that's it!” He exclaimed. “This is probably one of those weird occult things that happen sometimes!” Celty would know what's up, she was a Dullahan for fuck's sake! One who was obsessed with aliens, she would know if they were responsible (though he doubted they existed, he could suspend his disbelief considering his present situation).

With newfound motivation, Shizuo ran all the way to Celty and Shinra's apartment, hoping his friend would have more information about what was going on in Ikebukuro.

However, when he arrived there, nobody answered when he rang. He couldn't text any of them either because of the lack of a signal. So, he decided to just open the door himself, broken locks be damned. He stepped inside the lobby and went up the stairs to his friend's floor and quickly found the right door which he opened easily.

... The apartment was empty.

Not only that, it was surprisingly tidy, no object out of place and, most importantly, no sign of living anywhere in any of the rooms he opened, calling for both the illegal doctor and the headless rider and getting no answer.

They were gone.

No.

It's like they had never even been here in the first place.

Shizuo didn't know what to do, or how to feel for that matter.

Until now, every time something bothered or confused him, he'd feel nothing but red, fiery rage that would eventually result in broken bones and property. But now was different. He was alone, his friends were gone.

He didn't feel the boiling heat of rage.

He felt cold, cold dread instead.

When he finally exited the deserted apartment, he felt oddly calm, but not in the peaceful way he'd always strived for, no. He clenched his fists.

He was going to find out who did this and make them pay. With a fiery, determined expression that would make even those who didn't know of him run away in fear, he started walking, letting his instincts guide him, for once embracing them instead of being overcome by them.

...

Izaya unlocked the phone and blanked. No signal.

Huh.

He took the SIM card out and back in, but no change. He put down the phone, coffee forgotten, and went to get his other phones, with identical results.

The Wi-Fi was down too. Crap.

He put down all the phones on his desk, all useless for now, and quickly drank his (now cold) coffee, then quickly went back upstairs to get dressed.

He removed the bathrobe, then quickly put on his usual outfit for “going out”, black pants and a just-as-black long-sleeved shirt. He took a few knives and hid them in strategic places everywhere on himself, as was routine, then went back down to exit the apartment after putting on his shoes and coat (and hiding numerous knives there as well, on top of putting his favorite switchblade in the left pocket).

There, now he was ready to investigate what was going on here.

He stepped into the elevator, which appeared to be functioning correctly. Considering the lights were working in his apartment, electricity wasn't a problem at least, so a power outage was unlikely to be the cause of the whole Shinjuku (and maybe even Tokyo) network being down.

So then, what caused it? He pondered through the whole elevator ride and continued after exiting the building that was also completely devoid of any human life.

Someone managing to hack and bring down the network seemed unlikely, unless it was a massive group of highly trained professionals. And even then, this city was big. There was no way it wouldn't have been fixed in the following hour, yet it had been several since he woke up and he had no idea how long things had been this way beforehand.

Power outage, again, improbable considering electricity was running everywhere, even in the empty stores.

And well, what could even explain the complete lack of both human and animal life in the city? If an evacuation order had been given for whatever reason, he would've been one of the firsts to know. Not only that, but the streets were way too clean. If people had needed to evacuate en masse, many would have hurried and even panicked, that would have left at least some kind of mess. Yet there was nothing out of place.

Izaya stopped in the middle of an empty road.

Nothing was out of place. Everything was perfectly clean. No dust on any of the parked cars, no rust on the metal street signs. Everything was spotless.

He looked around with a frown. The buildings looked almost polished because of how smooth the cement was. Brick walls were perfectly aligned. The roads looked like they had just been repainted because of how immaculate the paint was. Cars were parked perfectly straight and looked like they had just been cleaned. Even the trees were picture-perfect, surrounded by only the most beautiful flowers and just-mowed grass.

Everything was perfect. Too perfect.

This wasn't Shinjuku.

This was an imitation he had been placed in.

That explained the lack of people, and the fact there was no network to speak of. He probably was far, far away from home, and possibly, civilization.

He looked at the blue, cloudless sky. Where had he ended up and, most importantly... which of his many enemies managed to catch him and put him in a life-size replica of Shinjuku?

His phone went violently flying against the asphalt, the screen breaking as it hit the ground at high velocity.

He looked at the probably broken phone blankly, hands shaking with excitement.

“How ridiculous” he said in a quiet voice that felt much too loud in the uneasy quiet of the immense city. He started chuckling, first quietly, then gradually louder until the laughter became mad, hysterical cackling that echoed in the empty streets.


	3. Chapter 3

Shizuo was on a mission. He would find the bastard who did this, and he would beat the life out of them. Then get them to free everyone. Wait, maybe freeing everyone should come before the beating. But they'd need some convincing, probably, right? So maybe he should beat them a bit, like half? And then they free everyone, and then–

Ah whatever! He'd beat 'em up and free everyone, that's it! He had a plan, and it was perfect! Well not that perfect, but he'd work on it... eventually.

Anyway, it seemed his instincts brought him...he looked around...in Shinjuku? He didn't appear to be far from a certain flea's home base, too. He could feel a very familiar annoyance at the back of his mind. He almost regretted following his instincts and looked around for something to throw at the fleabag.

... Until he heard hysterical cackling echoing loudly in the now silent streets of Tokyo. Loudly enough for him to not only pinpoint its exact location but also exactly whose voice it was.

He ran, makeshift weapon forgotten.

...

Oh, this was fantastic! To go to such lengths to kidnap him and throw him in some Tokyo replica! Izaya was absolutely delighted!

So, who put him here? Moreover, how did they manage to do it? His last memory was of working till 4 AM and finally going to sleep, yet something must have happened between then and now. What sort of person was his captor? What were their motivations? Was it for vengeance? An experiment?

To say this situation excited him was an understatement.

“I-ZAAAAAAAA-YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

He blinked. Oh, so the beast was here too! Maybe this was an execution then? He turned towards the bartender-clad bodyguard with a giggle.

“Well, if it isn’t Shizu-chan!” He immediately flicked out his switchblade.

“I should have known it was you, I-za-ya-kuuuun!” Shizuo, cold fury now replaced with his usual furious rage, went towards a street sign to uproot it. He gripped the metal tightly and pulled.

The sign stayed put.

He looked at it, half-pissed, half-confused. He pulled again, this time with more force. The metal in his hand didn’t so much as twist as he started pulling with all his strength.

“What the fuck?!”

Izaya could only watch blankly at the scene... then he started laughing.

“Oh, oh, this is too good!” He was laughing so hard that his stomach hurt. So not only did they kidnap him, but they also took Shizuo and, on top of it all, reduced his strength to that of a normal human being? Oh, he certainly wasn’t dealing with amateurs this time!

Giving up on the sign, Shizuo instead opted to use his fists and threw one right at Izaya, which he easily dodged after almost a decade of avoiding his various makeshift projectiles. He threw a few more, Izaya avoiding each and every one of them with a cat-like grace... until he did something he had never done before.

He tripped, foot catching on the broken phone he had forgotten about, and fell on his back with a yelp just as another of Shizuo’s fists swung in the air, barely missing his face.

Izaya scrambled to get back up and run, but for once Shizuo was faster and jumped on his back, flattening him to the ground on his stomach, broken phone digging uncomfortably in his hips. He sat right there, keeping Izaya on the ground.

“Even without my strength, I’m still heavier than you.” He said with a murderous smile on his face. “So, what did you do this time, huh?!”

“Again, you’re accusing me of something I did not do.” Izaya struggled to turn his head just enough to see Shizuo’s face. “Will you not believe in that one percent?”

“No. We’re the only ones left. Just you and me in all of Tokyo. Seems pretty suspicious to me. So, spill, I-za-ya!” He growled.

Izaya sighed. Negotiating with a beast was hard enough at a distance, but now he was quite literally pinned underneath him. What a pain.

“You won’t believe me, of course, but I did nothing this time.” He tried.

“Bullshit.” Figured.

“Well, that’s your own problem if you don’t believe me. However, do you really think I wouldn’t gloat about it if I had managed to rob you of your monstrous strength?”

Shizuo’s eyebrow twitched because shit, the flea did have a point. No way in hell was that shithead not gonna brag about something like this. So, at the very least his strength having disappeared probably wasn’t directly Izaya’s fault.

“Even then, all you do is cause trouble wherever you go!” He spat, “If you didn’t cause this directly, it’s probably still because of your scheming that everyone’s gone!”

His abnormal strength may have been gone, but he could still use his weight to crush the louse, and he sure as hell was gonna use it. He put all his weight on Izaya’s back, causing him to wheeze as air was forced out of his lungs. He started trashing underneath Shizuo, struggling to get away, kicking his legs up to hit the beast’s back, but alas.

The truth of the matter was, even without his monstrous strength, Shizuo was still much stronger than him.

Feeling dizzy from the little air he managed to get thanks to his current predicament, Izaya thought he had to get away from Shizuo, and fast.

“Don’t you get it, you dumb brute?!” He yelled angrily and with some difficulty thanks to the lack of air, “It’s not everyone else who has disappeared, it’s us! This may look like Tokyo but it’s not, look around you, you protozoan!”

Shizuo paused at the outburst, so unlike the usual smug attitude typical of the flea, and gave quick glances around them, not finding anything off.

“The fuck are you going on about? This is Tokyo! You think I can’t recognize Shinjuku just because I don’t live there? I’ve been here enough times to know!” He pressed on Izaya’s back, making him struggle even more to try to get at least a little air.

“Look...huff...look more closely you...you i-imbecile!” Izaya’s face was turning red from the effort and lack of air, his vision gradually becoming blurry and dark at the corner of his vision. Shizuo removed some of his weight off the informant and heard him take a sharp breath. He looked around, paying more attention to his surroundings.

What was the vermin even going on about? This was Shinjuku through and through. The street configuration was the same, the shops he remembered passing by whenever he came here to beat up Izaya, signs and trash cans were in the same spot as the last time he came... there…?

Huh?

Now that he looked more closely, wasn’t everything awfully... neat? He narrowed his eyes. Street signs looked good as new, not a speck of dust on them. All the shop windows looked like they’d just been cleaned. Heck, even the trash cans themselves were squeaky clean.

“... What the fuck.”

“Do you see now, Shizu-chan?” Izaya said, now calmer after regulating his breathing. “This is a fake. A very convincing one, but still a fake. The fact that everything looks brand new and orderly gave it away. Nobody has ever lived here; we’ve been transported to a life-sized copy of Tokyo.”

Shizuo looked down at Izaya, disturbed. He was reminded of Celty and Shinra's empty apartment, looking like nobody had ever lived there.

“What the fuck.” He repeated. “Even you wouldn’t bother going that far.”

“Right, so it couldn’t have been me.”

Shizuo fidgeted on Izaya’s back, earning an annoyed grumble, then finally removed himself and stood back up near Izaya. He didn't bother helping the other man as he got up to his feet too.

“I mean, it’s probably still your fault somehow, even if you didn’t do it yourself, you probably pissed off the wrong person again, didn’t you, louse?” Shizuo took out a cigarette and lit it, ignoring Izaya’s disgusted stare.

“Don’t subject me to your disgusting second-hand smoking, Shizu-chan.” He said as he put some distance between them not to have to smell the smoke. “And for once, unfortunately, I must agree with you. I doubt any of your enemies would be smart and wealthy enough to kidnap the both of us and place us in a life-size replica of Tokyo.” He sighed.

Shizuo said nothing as he smoked, appreciating the sight of a grossed-out Izaya who, for once, didn’t seem to have any idea of what was happening. Hah, served him right.


	4. Chapter 4

It was a strange thing, to exist in the same space as Heiwajima Shizuo with neither knives nor uprooted street signs being thrown around. Shizuo was enjoying his disgusting, terrible-smelling cancer stick, and Izaya was observing their surroundings, thinking.

It was very probable that the one who brought them here was an enemy of Izaya's. He had a hard time imagining a random person unrelated to them picking the both of them by pure coincidence. Likewise, Shizuo's own enemies, while numerous, tended to be common thugs and nonpaying debtors, not the kind of people who'd be able to achieve such a feat. So, obviously, it had to come from Izaya's side of things.

The question was, who did it?

Many names and faces came up in his mind in quick succession, but were eliminated just as fast. 'Too poor, too dumb, too smart, no motive, no allies...'

Hmm, this was going to be difficult without more clues.

In his peripheral vision, he saw Shizuo flick the remains of his cigarette on the ground and step on it unusually calmly, a contrast to the way he would do it before reaching for something heavy to launch at someone, usually Izaya. At the very least, with that cigarette butt and Izaya's own broken phone still on the ground, the road appeared slightly less artificial and perfect. It still left an unpleasant feeling deep in Izaya's gut, though.

Izaya turned to Shizuo, observing the quiet beast.

'Boring', he thought.

"The fuck you're looking at?" Shizuo grumbled at him. Ah, this was better. Still boring, but slightly less. Izaya gave him a bright smile that he knew would annoy the blonde to no end. It worked, but not as much as he had hoped.

"Shizu-chan is so calm today, is that because of your missing strength I wonder~?"

"Stop that." Shizuo cut him off. Izaya blinked at him and tilted his head in mock confusion. "You're trying to annoy me. Stop that."

Oh, so the beast was trying to avoid conflict now? Izaya narrowed his eyes. Well, that wouldn't do. Monsters weren't allowed to be reasonable, after all. It was Izaya's civic duty to remind his enemy of that. He threw a knife right at Shizuo's face, which barely left a trace as it grazed Shizuo's skin. Interesting, so his strength was reduced, but not his resistance.

Shizuo's eyebrows twitched, and the next thing he knew, he was throwing another fist right back at Izaya, the annoying worm stepping back just enough to barely evade it, and stepping around the phone on the ground. 'Shit', Shizuo thought as Izaya grinned at him and sliced him right in the chest, 'he got me. Even though I promised myself I wouldn't do that anymore!'

Pissed, he roared and threw another fist, but suddenly stopped midway.

Izaya was disappointed to realize he dodged for nothing. Oh, what now? Why is it so hard to get the beast to fight him already?

His smile was completely gone, replaced by an annoyed frown. He observed the perfectly still man in front of him and even put his blade back in his pocket when Shizuo still refused to move an inch. It was pretty uncanny, actually.

He looked like he belonged in the quiet, unmoving Tokyo. Izaya decided he didn't like it and walked up to him to grab the fist that was still hanging mid-air.

No reaction.

He moved the man’s fist down, and Shizuo let him. He looked like a mannequin. Movable, lifeless.

Izaya was pondering on how to snap the blonde out of his stupor when said blonde started moving again. Izaya stepped back in case another hit went flying.

Instead, Shizuo collapsed completely, laying limp on the ground. Izaya barely had time to even comprehend the situation before he followed Shizuo's lead and lost consciousness as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic probably makes no sense, huh.  
> It's ok I know what I'm doing (or do I? *wink wink*).


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rearranged chapters a bit so if you're wondering why the published chapters number seems off, that's why. No content was removed, just combined.  
> I did rewrite some parts, but the plot was unchanged so re-reading it is not mandatory at all.

When he opened his eyes, a few things surprised Shizuo.

First, not only did he wake up before his alarm (saving the poor alarm clock from certain doom), but it seemed he had also forgotten to even set said alarm. Good thing he woke up before the usual time, or he might have overslept and been late for work, and while he was sure Tom would let it slide as he usually did for most things Shizuo did, he didn't want to let his boss down again. He promised himself he wouldn't disappoint his loved ones any more.

He emerged from bed sheets that were halfway fallen to the ground, feeling like complete hell. After leaving the bed, he didn't bother folding the sheets and left his bedroom still in his sleepwear (which comprised nothing but sweatpants) to go do his morning ritual in the bathroom, only to pause in the tiny living room-slash-kitchen.

“It's so quiet…” Shizuo mused, voice barely louder than a whisper.

He frowned. Usually at this hour his neighbors would start getting ready for the day, and a few cars would pass on the road near his apartment complex. Heiwajima Shizuo, as his name implied, was a man who loved peace and quiet; it was nice to wake up to pure quiet once in a while, yet this particular brand of quiet felt off. Wrong.

He walked to the sliding glass door, opening it to go on his small balcony. He spent a few minutes there, leaning on the railing and observing.

Shizuo decided he didn't like that quiet.

He frowned, going back inside to continue his morning routine, an uncomfortable feeling in the back of his mind.

...

Izaya was used to waking up in a silent, empty apartment as soon as dawn broke. He had always been used to the quiet since his early childhood (though it had gotten significantly less quiet when his sisters were born), yet today the quiet felt different. If he had to describe it, instead of the usual peace of waking up with the morning rays and quietly getting ready for another day of observing his lovely humans, this felt more like the quiet just before a devastating storm. It felt wrong, too quiet.

Not only that, but he felt like shit. Clearly, he shouldn't have pulled that all-nighter working until 4 AM. He felt the exhaustion in his entire body, pain particularly strong in his arms and legs, probably from sitting at his desk and typing all night without a single break.

He sat up in his queen-sized bed and stretched his arms and legs before getting up and out of bed. He made sure the bed was all neat and proper before heading for the bathroom connected to his bedroom.

He passed in front of the mirror and stopped to look at himself. He looked like shit, dark bags prominent under his dull eyes, and hair an absolute mess. He went to the shower, getting undressed and throwing the clothes in the laundry basket. He then turned on the water, waiting a few seconds for it to heat up, then stepped inside and under the wonderfully warm water. Hopefully, this would wake him up.

In the vast apartment, the only sound that could be heard was that of running water on the second floor, until eventually that sound too, stopped, and out stepped a squeaky-clean and freshly dried Orihara Izaya, fully dressed and wearing white bunny slippers, which he may or may not have bought because he found them adorable. He may or may not have given his hard-working secretary a matching pair to annoy her. She wore them anyway, because she liked to be contrary.

He still felt tired, but at least he looked a bit less like a corpse. His body still hurt, though.

With some difficulty, he stepped down to the bottom floor in his kitchen and made himself some black coffee to wake himself up some more, then left the kitchen with the steaming cup. He walked past the couch to go behind his desk, stopping in front of the immense glass windows.

The streets were empty. Neither person nor animal in sight, all cars parked and empty.

He frowned as he drank his coffee. It burned his tongue, but with all the pain in the rest of his body, he barely paid attention to it.

His hands were shaking, as if holding up the cup took great effort, and, he realized, the pain in his legs felt gradually stronger as minutes passed, to the point he had to sit down at his desk, feeling like he would collapse any moment.

'Might as well look into what's happening in the streets', he supposed as he booted up his computer painstakingly. He typed his password much slower than usual thanks to his trembling hands. He doubted the pain was simply from overworking himself. This felt too... physical. Like he had gotten into some sort of accident and forgot about it, which would be... strange, but trauma could cause amnesia, so it was still a possibility.

The first surprise was seeing his browser give nothing but blank pages with each search he typed. The second was realizing that not only was the Wi-Fi down, but the cellular network was as well when he checked the phone in his desk.

The third, when he tried to get up and get his other phones, was realizing he couldn't stand up anymore.

Incredible pain racked his whole body when he tried to stand, bracing his arms on the desk chair. He was good at ignoring physical pain and run through it thanks to years of getting heavy objects thrown at him, but this was too much. Even when he leaned back in the chair, relaxing both arms and legs, the pain was still a constant, although slightly milder.

What the fuck had happened to him to put him in such a state? Something clearly transpired between the time he went to sleep and now, and that wasn't to mention the mystery of the complete lack of human and animal life in the streets of the usually active Shinjuku.

He wanted to investigate himself, but what could he do in his current state? He was stuck in his office chair with no means of communicating with the outside world. What was he supposed to do except hope for someone who wasn't an enemy to find him?

With some difficulty, Izaya rolled the office chair through his apartment, going to the door where his coat hung. He put it on, as well as some shoes (though he doubted he would use them much) and exited through the door, dragging himself to the elevator by pushing against the walls.

He probably seemed ridiculous, a cringing, tired looking young man who tried getting around in an office chair.

It'd be easier if he was in a wheelchair, he thought pitifully as he managed to leave the empty apartment building.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay this one is...long.  
> I might have gotten carried away a little.

Ikebukuro was empty, no sign of human life visible anywhere Shizuo looked. He had looked everywhere, starting from his own relatively quiet neighborhood to the usually busier streets, yet nobody was there.

Things were...strange, too. He had noticed electricity worked perfectly everywhere in the city, yet some things were off. The cellular network, for example, was down, as was the Wi-Fi, as he found out when he had tried contacting Celty by mail. While electricity _did_ function, the typical jingles and songs you could hear in stores and in the streets were gone. Likewise, the gigantic screens on buildings that would usually show advertisement and, for some, television, were all blank. They weren’t turned off, just blank, displaying white screens everywhere.

Of course, that wasn’t all, oh no. It looked like everything had been cleaned overnight, not a speck of dust visible anywhere. Everything looked brand new, and not a single object was out-of-place. Even cars were all parked perfectly straight. They were squeaky-clean as well, of course.

Everything felt so wrong...and yet he couldn’t help but feel like this situation was very familiar. He couldn’t for the life of him remember when this had ever happened. Maybe he had seen a movie with this kind of scenario? Either way, Shizuo couldn’t shake off the feeling of déjà vu.

He sighed, the sound awfully loud in the silent, empty streets. Just what was going on here? Everyone was gone, everything was so neat it looked artificial, and Izaya— 

He froze.

‘Izaya?’

Why was he suddenly thinking about the flea, of all people?

A sharp pain suddenly made itself known in his head, he could see images rapidly go through his mind.

  
  
  


_A phone ringing._

_Goodbye._

_He couldn’t breathe. Flames._

_Unbearable noise. Explosions. Flashes of light._

_An army of red eyes._

_Bones breaking._

_Do it, monster._

_Do it._

_Monster._

_Monster._

_M o n s t e r._

  
  
  


**_D O I T , M O N S T E R ._ **

  
  


.

.

.

  
  


He let out a sharp cry as the images kept coming. He clutched his head in pain and fell to his knees on the ground.

  
  
  
  


**M**

_He had promised himself, after this. Never again._

**O**

_The city was as chaotic as it usually was. Yet something was missing._

**N**

_He kept doing it anyway. Uprooted signs. Destroyed property. Broken bones._

**S**

_‘He’ was right._

**T**

_That was all he was good at._

**E**

_Violence. Destruction._

**R**

_A true monster._

  
  
  
  


Finally, the flashes stopped, and he was left on his knees on the empty road, breathing heavily. Gradually, the pain subsided until all that was left was the memory of it.

He took a heavy breath, then got up to his feet.

“I need to find Izaya.” He spoke to no one.

  
  
  
  


...

  
  
  
  


Izaya had tried many things in the past in his search for excitement. Of course, messing with humans was by far his favorite activity. It was so fun, trying to predict how people would react in certain situations, and watching the chaos unfold after giving the right people the right information. It was exhilarating.

He had never tried getting around the streets while seated in an office chair, but he supposed he could now add that to the list.

It wasn’t very fun, however.

He had taken a broom from the lobby to get himself around more easily, seeing as dragging himself from walls was not only impractical but also painful for his suddenly weakened arms. He put the end of the broom on the ground in front of him, then dragged himself towards it, again, and again, and again.

Needless to say, he wasn’t advancing very quickly.

Good thing the streets were void of any life whatsoever, because he was feeling completely and utterly humiliated. Oh, how the great Orihara Izaya had fallen from grace.

  
  


He was so focused on trying to move while stuck in his own chair that he barely paid attention to his surroundings until he finally moved his gaze up from the ground and immediately froze.

“Izaya.”

In front of him was a beast. He could feel his entire body tense up, bringing more pain to his legs and arms. He quickly took the broom and pointed it at the blonde without a word.

Shizuo seemed surprised, either because of the broom in his face or, more likely, because of Izaya’s general appearance.

Izaya looked miserable, Shizuo thought. The man was looking frazzled, face flush from exertion and, possibly, humiliation, and was sat down in an office chair in the middle of the street.

Shizuo tilted his head to the side.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“None of your damn business, protozoan.” Izaya spat, still not letting go of his makeshift lance despite knowing it would do nothing against Shizuo.

They stayed in silence or a few minutes, looking at each other. Izaya’s gaze was full of suspicion, while Shizuo’s looked more confused.

“Do you, uh...need help?” Shizuo broke the silence with his question while vaguely gesturing to Izaya, and immediately mentally berated himself because why the fuck was he even asking this to his sworn enemy? Not only was that immensely stupid, but there was no way Izaya would accept his help.

The dark glare Izaya gave him confirmed his thoughts.

Izaya was keeping silent, but Shizuo could see his gaze become more intense as the seconds passed. This will end badly, Shizuo thought.

He took a slow step back, not breaking eye contact. Red eyes were entirely focused on his movement.

He took another step back, and a few more until, finally, the broom was gradually lowered till it rested on the ground.

“Stay right there and not any closer.” Izaya said, tone sharp but eyes now less agitated. He laid the broom across his lap, keeping his hands over it in case he would need to use it as a weapon again.

“Ah, sure.” Shizuo was uncertain. Izaya’s attitude was...unusual, but so was his own, he had realized. He had noticed he was feeling surprisingly clear-headed and, despite the strange situation they were in, calm. Izaya, in contrast, looked volatile, like he could blow up any second if Shizuo did or said the wrong thing.

In a way, it felt like their roles had been reversed.

They were silent once again, neither willing to break the rare calm between them. Shizuo was starting to feel antsy, wanting to grab a smoke, but not daring to move in case Izaya lost it.

Izaya, meanwhile, was observing the blonde with rapt attention. Shizuo didn’t know what the informant was looking for, but he seemed to have found it, seeing as he gradually relaxed in the chair until he seemed like himself again.

After a long silence, Izaya finally piped up.

“I don’t suppose you know what’s happening to us, do you, Shizu-chan?” His tone was even and hid perfectly his previous panicked state.

Shizuo shook his head.

“Nope. Well, I know everything looks weird and stuff” Shizuo scratched the back of his head.

“Elaborate.”

“Well, huh...” Shit, Shizuo wasn’t sure how to word this, words had never been his forte... He tried anyway. “Well, everyone’s gone. Also everything looks...weird...” Nailed it.

Izaya sighed.

“Ah, I shouldn’t have bothered. Asking you to formulate complete, understandable sentences is like trying to teach a fish to talk. Actually, the fish might be more successful in its endeavors.”

Shizuo’s eyebrow twitched, a familiar annoyance towards the flea surging up.

“Hey, that’s all I know! Just look around and you’ll see what I mean! It’s all weird, there’s no other way to describe it!” He yelled, clenching his fists.

Izaya seemed just as annoyed as Shizuo at being ordered around, but took his suggestion and looked around for the first time that day, not being focused on trying to get around without the use of his legs.

The first thing he noticed was just how clean everything was. Even the windows of shops were bare of any speck of dirt. All objects present were perfectly orderly, looking like they’d been put there with purpose.

He looked up at some of the bigger buildings and noticed the screens that would usually show ads of all kinds were simply...white.

He frowned.

“Oh,” Shizuo startled Izaya with his outburst, “Phones also don’t work! I couldn’t send messages to anyone.”

“You should have mentioned this earlier, dumb brute.” Shizuo didn’t seem to think it was that important, however this information was crucial, because it confirmed Izaya’s doubts.

“Hey, I forgot alri—“

“This isn’t Shinjuku, or even Tokyo. Actually, we probably aren’t even in Japan at all.” Izaya interrupted Shizuo with his conclusion.

Shizuo froze, not only because of the revelation that suddenly...made a lot of sense, but also because the sense of déjà vu he’d had the whole time came back full force.

Hadn’t they already had this conversation?

“This. This is weird too.”

Izaya tilted his head to the side in confusion. “What are you going on about, now?”

“I mean, this situation.”

“Yes, Shizu-chan, I agree finding yourself alone with your sworn enemy in an empty replica of your home city is quite unusual.” Izaya mocked him with a smirk. Shizuo growled in frustration.

“No! I mean yes, that too, but it’s not the only weird thing!”

“Then use your words and explain yourself in a way someone with IQ higher than that of a beast can understand you.” Izaya knew provoking Shizuo while he was in a less-than-ideal physical condition was an atrocious idea, yet he couldn’t seem to help himself.

Shizuo, meanwhile, was doing his best to reign himself. He had promised himself.

_When had he made that promise?_

“Us, we’re weird. Don’t you feel that? How familiar everything seems? Like it’s happened before?”

“For a matter of fact, I don’t. But please continue.” And this time, Izaya seemed genuinely interested.

“I woke up and I was thinking things I usually wouldn’t,” Shizuo continued explaining how he felt as best as he could.

Izaya was very tempted to make a joke about how it was indeed strange that Shizuo would think at all, but decided not to. The beast was saying some interesting things

“And at some point I...remembered some stuff, except not really? They felt like memories, but I don’t remember any of it happening...”

Izaya quirked an eyebrow. Well, this sounded familiar. Not the remembering things part, but the probable amnesia thing.

Had they had their memories erased, and Shizuo managed to get some of those back? This would explain his own physical state...but something was still missing.

Even if he did get into an accident of some sort and forgot about it, it didn’t explain why he had woken up tired, but otherwise fully physically able.

“When did this happen? The flashback?” He asked, putting a hand to his chin in thought.

“Oh, huh, I was looking for people this morning, and it suddenly came all at once. My head hurt like a bitch.”

Izaya hummed. “Did anything specific happen beforehand? For example you saw something that surprised you, or thought something that caused you to remember?”

“Uh...” Shizuo looked to the sky in thought, crossing his arms. “I don’t think so? I was thinking about how weird everything was, and then...”

_‘Izaya.’_

It was like a lightbulb had lit up just above Shizuo’s head. “Oh, I thought about you! Then it happened!” He exclaimed.

“Interesting, so thinking about me brought back memories, huh...” He smirked. “Well, I’m flattered, Shizuo-chan.”

Shizuo looked confused, then promptly combusted. Feeling a mix of embarrassment and rage rising up, he walked away and went to grab a nearby trash can.

The heavy, metal trash can stayed put, so Shizuo took the lid, intending to throw it like a frisbee, but only barely managed to keep it in his hands, much less throw it.

He heard giggling behind him and gave a fiery glare at the informant who seemed all too amused at the situation.

“Hahahaha,” He laughed. “Oh my god, seems like your memories weren’t the only things you lost.”

“Fuck off.” He growled, but then a thought rapidly sobered him up. “Actually, this is familiar too. Me not being able to use my strength, and you laughing your ass off about it.”

“Oh~?” Izaya cocked his head to the side, curious.

But Shizuo also had the vague feeling that he had been able to use his strength at some point. When had that been?

When...?

  
  


_‘Abduction’_

_‘Aliens’_

_‘Occult’_

_‘She would know. Celty would know.’_

_‘He rang. Nobody answered.’_

_‘Broken locks be damned.’_

  
  


“Ah.”

“Remember something again, Shizu-chan?”

“I just remembered, I tried to find Celty earlier...yesterday? I don’t know, it’s all weird.” He huffed in annoyance. “Anyway, nobody answered the door, so I broke it.”

“Quite the polite houseguest, aren’t you?”

“Shut up.” It was an emergency and nobody answered him, he had to!

“But you bring an interesting point. Something similar seems to have happened to me.” He clapped his hands as if he had found the answer to a particularly difficult question.

“Huh, really?”

“Look at me, Shizu-chan. See anything weird?” He asked the blonde. Really, it was quite obvious.

Shizuo observed his face for a bit. “You look like you haven’t slept in a week.” He said flatly.

“Wow, thank you. Look harder.” He crossed his arms.

Shizuo moved his gaze down to the office chair. He had realized it earlier, but considering how frazzled Izaya had looked then, he had felt like it was better not to mention it. The informant did seem calmer now, though.

“Why are you in that chair?” He asked with the subtlety of a large rock.

“Well, I happen to not be able to walk anymore and had no choice but to use my office chair to go outside, what with not being in possession of an actual wheelchair.” He explained simply. “But here’s the thing: much like you, I woke up with my body in its usual state. It just gradually stopped working correctly and now I cannot walk.”

He didn’t mention the constant pain he was in even when just sitting down.

“That’s...kinda extreme.” Shizuo said, feeling a bit awkward. “So we went through the same thing...sorta?”

“Yes, well, barring the memories thing. I have no idea whether what you saw was a legitimate flashback to forgotten memories or hallucinations. I didn’t see anything of that sort.”

“Oh... So, uh, what are we supposed to do now?”

“Why are you asking me, Shizu-chan?”

“Wh-, because you’re the smart one here!” Shizuo blistered, which made Izaya chuckle.

“I don’t know if I should take it as a compliment coming from you, but as much as it pains me to say this, I do need help to move around, and we’re certainly not going to find a way out by relying on your two-and-a-half working brain cells.” He extended his hand towards Shizuo as some sort of peace offering. Shizuo looked at it suspiciously. “So let’s work together, ‘Shizuo-kun’.”

Shizuo looked annoyed at hearing Izaya say his full first name. “Don’t call me that, it sounds weird. Also I’m not shaking your hand.”

“Your loss.” Izaya took back his hand and shrugged. “I will be counting on you to carry me around, then.”

“Hey, I didn’t agree to that!”

“Well, too bad, because if you want to depend on my brain power, we’ll need to move together, and I assure you, trying to roll around in this chair is neither fast nor practical. It would take forever. Your choice.”

Shizuo groaned, because of course the louse was right.

“Oh, whatever.” He said as he immediately grabbed Izaya by the waist, earning himself an undistinguished squeak, and threw him over his shoulder.

“Wha- Hey, do this properly you dumb beast!” Izaya sputtered as he pounded the blonde’s back with weak fists.

“You know,” Shizuo said, ignoring the fists he could barely even feel, “Even without my strength, I can still hold you like this. Do you ever eat?”

“I eat just enough, you protozoan, and, might I say, I eat much healthier than you and your pseudo-food that is half grease and half sugar! Now hold me correctly, this hurts.” Izaya grumbled.

“Oh, sorry,” Shizuo said, clearly not sorry but obliging anyway because having a flea complain in his ear was getting annoying. He moved Izaya from his shoulder to his arms, using one of them to hold his back while the other held him by the back of his knees. Izaya felt a bit heavier in this position, but it was that or having him complain again.

“A princess carry. Really.” Izaya said flatly.

“What.” Shizuo snapped. “Your legs hurt, right? So I can’t put you on my back, you’d fall off.”

Damn monster and his unexpected moments of intelligence. Izaya huffed.

“Ah, whatever, this’ll have to do until I find something better.” Izaya conceded, reluctantly accepting his fate. Damn body, and damn Shizu-chan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is pretty weird, huh.
> 
> It'll get weirder.


	7. Chapter 7

"So, where are we going?" Shizuo asked, nonchalant.

"The nearest medical facility. I'll show you the way, so just be a good dog and follow directions, alright?" Izaya sing-songed, then squeaked when Shizuo squeezed his legs painfully in retaliation.

"Why there? There probably won't be anyone there either you know, you can't get yourself checked out." He said but started walking in the direction Izaya pointed out anyway.

' _How obedient_ ' Izaya thought with a smile.

"I know that, you idiot, I'm going to steal a wheelchair." He said matter-of-factly with a shrug.

"Ah..." Shizuo wasn't really into stealing stuff, he didn't know how to feel about Izaya's idea, but... Well, the guy did need some reliable form of transportation that didn't need to depend on Shizuo's failing strength. The man wasn't particularly heavy for someone his height, but Shizuo still felt like holding him all day long would be pushing it in his current physical condition.

Moreover, they were put in this place against their will anyway. Their captors should have expected some payback, even if in the form of petty theft.

Though, theft would be the least of their problems once they got a hold of said captors.

The trip to the hospital was fairly quiet, the silence only being broken by Izaya giving directions and, occasionally, insulting Shizuo for good measure. Shizuo would always pinch him in retaliation.

Not that it'd stopped the pest.

"That the place?" Shizuo asked as they stopped in front of a tall building.

"Yes. Go in, not-so-noble steed." He patted Shizuo's arm condescendingly and the blonde was very tempted to drop him on the ground. Instead, he entered through the automatic doors into the hospital lobby.

Izaya looked around for any stray wheelchair, but found none, so he pointed to the stairs. "Let's look in the patient's rooms. The rest of the city was furnished, so there must be some wheelchairs somewhere in there."

The first rooms they passed were, of course, empty aside from the bare minimum when it came to furniture: a bed, a nightstand, a wardrobe, and not much else. Like the rest of the pretend city, it looked like nobody had ever even set foot in there.

The next were all identical. Sometimes they'd see more specialized medical equipment, but it was once again completely unused as well as useless for them. They almost skipped the last rooms to look for some medical storage instead.

It was a good thing they didn't, however, because they did find a wheelchair.

The only problem was that it was currently in use.

Shizuo was standing in the doorway, speechless. Izaya's expression was carefully neutral, which was proof enough of his surprise.

Indeed, in front of them sat a young child in a too-big chair, looking idly through the open window, swinging their legs absent-mindedly.

"Um," Shizuo started, ignoring Izaya's hissed ' _Don't, protozoan!_ ', "...Hey?"

The child didn't move at first, they slowly turned their head to look at the two men. Piercing red eyes stared right at them, framed by short, messy brown hair. They appeared to be wearing hospital robes, though seemed in perfect health.

"Hello." The child answered softly with an indifferent expression that reminded Shizuo a lot of Kasuka, then got up from the chair. "You were looking for this...right?" The child gestured to the chair.

It didn't look like your usual hospital chair, was that titanium? The design was quite unusual as well, looking custom-made, although...

...Izaya thought the chair looked familiar, but he couldn't figure where he'd seen it before.

"Ah, yeah." Shizuo nodded dumbly. "This is fine, right, flea?"

Izaya observed the child and the chair intently. He narrowed his eyes, but nodded.

"I can't afford to be difficult right now." He spoke. "You, what's your name?" He asked the child.

"Mirai." The child answered simply and stepped away from the chair to let Shizuo deposit Izaya in it.

Izaya kept silently observing the child, then moved his gaze to take in the details of the chair. It looked quite high-tech and solid, on top of being pretty comfortable. So unlike normal hospital wheelchairs. He slid his hands over the armrest, then went to touch the wheels with a thoughtful expression.

Shizuo quirked an eyebrow at the informant’s strange attitude and instead turned to the girl (or so he assumed. Mirai was usually used as a female name, but it could have been a young boy with a feminine name...) with a smile.

"Nice to meet you, kid. I'm Shizuo." He got to his knees to be at eye level with Mirai and extended a hand towards her. She stared blankly at the hand then at Shizuo, and tilted her head to the side curiously.

"Nice to meet you."

She didn't take his hand. He felt awkward. The quiet snickering behind him informed him Izaya had seen the scene and was thoroughly enjoying his suffering.

That bastard. If he wasn't in front of a child, he'd hit the annoying pest.

Mirai looked absolutely confused.

"I believe dear Shizu-chan here wants you to take his hand." Izaya piped up with a composed smile.

"Oh." Mirai said then, gently, cradled Shizuo's hand in hers as if trying to comfort him.

Alright, that was precious. Not really the handshake Shizuo was expecting, but he'd take it. Next to him, Izaya appeared to be having the time of his life, if the wide grin on his face was any indication.

Shizuo slowly shook their joined hands and released them to get to his feet. Mirai's expression hadn't changed once since they'd met. Shizuo didn't think much of it, he knew a few inexpressive people, including, but not limited to his own brother as well as one of Izaya's sisters.

Izaya, on the other hand, was still scrutinizing the child.

She looked like she didn't have much social contact, if her oblivious reaction to what was supposed to be a handshake was anything to go by. Not only that, but the girl's appearance was suspicious as well.

He knew those eyes too well, from seeing them in the mirror every morning since he was a child, and then seeing them on his sisters' identical faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those curious about Mirai's appearance, I doodled her!  
> [Check it out!](https://amkitakk.tumblr.com/private/632579678051385344/tumblr_h6wzbSiWEHxCizwyg)  
> Also if you wanna (gently) yell at me or just talk about shizaya...feel free to drop into my inbox on [Tumblr](https://amkitakk.tumblr.com) ;)


	8. Chapter 8

The flea was being weird, Shizuo thought.

Of course, he'd always been weird, since probably before they had even met. Heck, he was even worse than weird, that guy was a freak. Then again, so was Shizuo...

But they were different kinds of freaks! Shizuo was a freak of nature, but the pest was a mentally deranged freak, they were completely different! They had absolutely nothing in common!

Anyway, the flea was being weirder than his usual freaky self, which was saying a lot. He was still making fun of Shizuo like he used to, although milder than before, maybe in respect of their very temporary truce. Yet, he still seemed on edge, his gaze regularly darting between Shizuo and... the kid.

"What was your name again, kid?" He asked, unsure. It was Mari, right?

"Mirai." It was not, in fact, Mari. He was close, though.

"Ah right, thanks." He'd try to remember this child's name. Emphasis on 'try'. She looked at him, red eyes void of any emotion.

Now that he paid attention, this kid's eyes were sort of like the flea's. Their color was similar, as was their shape. She looked like she could be his sister, although, as far as he knew, Izaya only had two sisters and no other siblings. A cousin maybe? The informant had never mentioned his extended family...or any family member other than his sisters, actually. Shizuo realized he hadn't the slightest idea what Izaya's family was like. Were they a big family? Small? Were they tight-knit like Shizuo's own, or more distant?

Were they all nuts like Izaya or was he the odd one out?

For some reason, Shizuo felt a sudden curiosity about the man who had consistently been ruining his life since high school.

God, maybe Izaya wasn't the only deranged one there.

"Might I ask," Izaya's voice broke the silence, "Why you were here on your own?" He gave the girl a smile as pleasant as it was threatening, she stared at him unflinchingly.

"I needed to guard this for you." She said, tilting her head towards the chair Izaya was sitting in.

"Oh?" Izaya's eyes narrowed dangerously. "So, you're saying you knew I would come here, looking for a wheelchair?"

"Yes and no. I knew someone would need it, so I guarded it. I didn't know this person was you, or why you would need it." This had to be, by far, the most words they'd ever heard come at once out of Mirai's mouth since they'd met her.

"Interesting. Are you claiming to have done that out of your own volition then?"

The girl opened her mouth to answer...then closed it without a sound.

"I..." She started, some hesitation in her voice, "...I don't know."

She looked at her feet in what appeared to be confusion. Izaya looked awfully satisfied at having made a young child question herself. It infuriated Shizuo, who frowned, but did his best to keep his cool in front of said child.

"It's fine if you don't know." He said, attracting both Mirai and Izaya's attention. "Sometimes you do stuff and you don't know why. It's fine, happens to everyone."

Izaya sent him a disdainful glare.

Shizuo gave him a brief look, then ignored him and continued. "Actually, it happens to me all the time. I do things without knowing why, and sometimes things end badly, but sometimes they don't. The most important thing is that you own up to whatever the consequences might be, good or bad."

Izaya bristled, the casual rejection clear as day. He gripped the armrests of the chair in anger.

"Stop trying to be philosophical, beast. You're going to fry your few remaining brain cells." He sneered at him. The blonde sure was getting on his nerves lately, had he always been this infuriating?

"...I see." Mirai's quiet voice was barely noticeable thanks to the overbearing hostility present in the room. She looked at both men, who were glaring at each other, unsure what to do about the current situation.

After a few seconds of intense staring, Izaya let out an annoyed huff and started rolling away. "Whatever, I got what I was looking for, I don't need you anymore." He said and left the room.

"Hey, we gotta stick together!" Shizuo called after him. He looked back at Mirai, then at the doorway, then back to Mirai. "Stay with me, alright? We got to stay together." He told her gently, then followed after Izaya as soon as she nodded. They exited the room together and found the hallway empty.

_Damn_ , he thought, why was a flea on wheels much faster than one on foot?!

He sighed and took long strides towards the direction he and Izaya had originally come from, making sure to pace himself so that Mirai could keep up with him despite her small size. The flea had probably gone to leave the hospital now that he'd found what he needed.

They went down the stairs, and found themselves in another empty hallway, no sign of the flea there either.

"Damn, that guy sure is fast when he wants to be." He muttered, then walked to the other end of the hallway and took the descending staircase again, Mirai close behind him. They exited the staircase and found themselves in yet another empty hallway. Shizuo paused.

"...Were we that high up?" He wondered aloud as he once again traveled to the other end of the hallway and, again, took the stairs.

They were met with an empty hall. Again.

And again.

And again.

"Fuck." Shizuo swore.

Mirai stayed silent.

...

Izaya rolled away from the room with an annoyed huff. If the beast wanted to make friends with the very suspicious child that bore an odd resemblance to Izaya himself and who was probably some kind of spy for their captor, well, that was none of Izaya's business.

Truthfully, the chair itself was probably bugged; it was much too convenient for there to be a single chair in the whole hospital guarded by a strange child who claimed not to know why she'd even guarded it in the first place.

Something was going on here, and he was going to find out what, beast or no beast.

He headed to an elevator he had overlooked when they'd entered the hospital and pressed the button to call it to the floor he was currently on. The door opened immediately, indicating that this, too, was working. As he entered the elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor, he thought their captors had certainly gone all out to create this fake Tokyo. He'd have to congratulate them once he managed to corner them.

Before making sure they knew never to mess with Orihara Izaya ever again, of course.

Which brought him to his current thought: what had they done to his and Shizuo's bodies? Considering that the effect wasn't immediate, with Shizuo being able to use his monstrous strength and Izaya his legs without pain, it must have been some poison or drug.

Thallium maybe? He did gradually feel pain in his lower body until they finally gave up on him, but this was much faster than 'normal' Thallium poisoning. He passed his hand in his hair and came up empty-handed. No hair loss either.

Mild Strychnine exposure could be a possibility too. He had a few symptoms, and this _was_ a faster-acting poison. He'd have noticed if it had been slipped into his morning coffee thanks to the color, but there was a possibility it was given to him in his sleep. Once again, though, he was missing some key symptoms.

Izaya sighed. He prided himself on his vast knowledge, but poisons and drugs were really more around Shinra's area of expertise.

His body hurt, but his condition didn't seem to have worsened, at the very least. It certainly wasn't getting any better, though.

He looked at the buttons inside the elevator with a bored expression. He could feel the elevator moving, yet he still wasn't on the ground floor. The door hadn't opened once either, so it couldn't have been because of someone pressing all the buttons.

He laid back in the wheelchair with a loud sigh.

"I have been crippled and then so generously been offered a practical means of transportation, only to end up trapped in an eternally-moving elevator. I commend the effort, but I'm sure there are much more fun ways to torment me than that. This is just boring." He said aloud. It was very likely he was being monitored, and if he wasn't, well, Izaya was used to talking to himself anyway.

Just as he finished his sentence, the elevator dinged.

"Oh, so you just wanted me to acknowledge you? Cute." He wheeled himself near the slowly opening doors, ready to escape the small space...only to stay frozen there.

Beyond the open doors was a vast expanse of blue.

Izaya blinked and looked down.

More blue.

Left. Right. Blue.

Then, he looked up.

There, far up in the sky(?), was a bird's view of Tokyo.

The world was upside-down.

As if to test out something, Izaya took one of his knives and threw it outside in front of him. Normal rules of gravity would make the knife fall down, and from there, there were two possible outcomes.

One: the knife falls down in front of it on the floor, which was made to look like a bottomless sky.

Two: the knife falls down, and down, never stopping. In that case, Izaya would be truly and utterly _fucked_.

What happened instead was option three.

The knife fell.

But it fell _up_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "amki what the fuck is even happening" you might ask.  
> And to this, all I can answer is : ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	9. Chapter 9

Izaya was even more fucked than he thought.

Just in case, he threw another one of his knives, but got the same result.

"Crap." He muttered and rolled to the very back of the elevator, suddenly overcome with intense vertigo. There was no way he'd survive a drop from this height. Not only that, but with how gravity currently was being, he wouldn't even risk it. Who knew what would happen?

This was too ridiculous to be true, so he pinched his own arm.

"Ow."

Okay, so it probably wasn't a dream. The fact remained that whatever was currently happening certainly wasn't a natural phenomenon. It had to be supernatural in nature, then, much as he loathed the idea. He would have preferred dealing with humans who had too much money and grandiose ideas of revenge. Because, in the end, humans were all the same: predictable in their unpredictability, and they could always be manipulated in some way or another.

Monsters, though? Not so much.

Izaya took a deep breath and punched the button to close the elevator doors. Thankfully, they did, ridding him of this boundless sea of blue and the reversed world above him.

He looked at the buttons in silence then, slowly, brought his hand to the button that should have initially brought him to the ground floor.

At first, the elevator didn't seem to budge, and Izaya almost pressed another button before all the lights switched off at once, the elevator being plunged in obscurity.

"Of course." He sighed. Nothing in this world made sense. The supernatural route was getting more and more plausible. Monsters made no sense, after all, their world, or...whatever this place was, wouldn't either.

He pressed random buttons in the dark, but of course nothing happened.

At the very least, he didn't seem to be falling (up or down). That was a small mercy.

...

In the meantime, Shizuo and Mirai were still going through the same hall again, and again. They'd switched to walking instead of running around.

There was no point in hurrying if they would always end up in the same place anyway.

Shizuo stopped in the middle of the hallway and sighed.

"We're going nowhere." He looked at the little girl who had stopped beside him. "You okay?"

They had been running for a while there, he wouldn't be surprised if Mirai was tired after all this.

"I'm fine." She said monotonously. Really, he couldn't help but see his younger brother as a child when he looked at her. She kinda looked like him too, though she also looked like the flea.

He had no idea what to think of that, so he decided to ignore it, like most things that confused him.

"Well, alright then. Tell me if you ever get tired though." He said, and she nodded, messy hair bobbing up and down with the movement.

He moved to the room closest to them and opened the door. Maybe the escape was somewhere else? Stairs clearly weren't the way out.

That, or the hospital had suddenly become humongous and all floors were exact copies of each other.

He'd say it was unlikely but strange things kept happening one after the other in this place. Who even knew what would happen next?

Of course, the room was exactly like the other ones they had seen with Izaya. Just the barest essentials and not much else. Same for all the other rooms on this floor.

"Ugh, is there even a way out at all?" Shizuo grumbled.

"There is." Mirai's calm voice interrupted Shizuo's turbulent thoughts. He blinked at her.

"...What?"

"There is a way out." She said, not elaborating.

"Right, yeah. We managed to get in, so we should be able to get out." He said, scratching his hair. "But this place is all weird, I don't know where the exit is supposed to be..."

She stared at him pointedly, but said nothing. He went back to exploring the small room they were in.

He looked everywhere, opened all the drawers, looked under the bed, removed the covers and even the mattress. Mirai had simply looked at him for a while, then moved her attention back to the window, staring idly outside like she was doing when they met.

Shizuo paused.

The window.

He approached Mirai, then looked through the window. They were on the second floor, it seemed. The street was visible underneath and Shizuo considered his options.

They could keep looking for a way to get to the hospital lobby.

Or they could jump.

Mirai was a child, she wouldn't survive this kind of fall, but what if Shizuo cushioned her fall? His strength may be failing him, but he was still pretty damn resilient, and if being shot or ran over barely even harmed him, a fall from the second floor of a building wouldn't kill him either.

"So that's what you were saying, huh. There _is_ a way out." He gave the kid a smile, and opened the window. "Hold tight, we're gonna jump."

...

Izaya remained there, in the complete darkness, for an unknown period of time. It could have been a few minutes just like it could have been hours, he had no way to tell.

He had searched in all his pockets and found none of his phones, only a few knives here and there but they certainly weren't going to help him guess the time.

He reached for the elevator buttons to try and make it move one last time—

...However, his hand was met with thin air.

He wheeled himself ahead to find a wall and find his way to the buttons this way, but found none. He kept going forward, and never once met any obstacle.

"Oh, wonderful." He said aloud to no-one in particular, voice full of sarcasm. He kept going forward, the only solid surface being the floor underneath the wheels. After a while, he started to perceive his own body again, yet the world around him remained pitch black. "Am I having hallucinations, is that it?"

"Close, but wrong." A familiar voice piped up from behind him, startling him. He would recognize that low grumble anywhere.

He whirled around using the controls on the armrests and was faced with a very familiar face.

In front of him stood Shizuo...or at least, a man who looked like he could be his twin. His golden eyes were identical, although they looked softer, more tired. His hair was about the same length and in the same state of disarray as usual, but it was an unbleached brown instead of the bright blonde Izaya was used to seeing.

To top it all off, he wasn't wearing his usual bartender getup, but what looked like hospital robes instead.

"Who are you." Izaya demanded, observing the doppelganger warily.

"...You can call me Tsugaru." The man answered calmly, so unlike Shizu-chan.

"Right. So, 'Tsugaru', you wouldn't happen to know what is going on in here, would you not?" He gave the man a threatening grin. Tsugaru didn't seem bothered by it.

"I do, but that's not why I'm here." He spoke.

"Oh, really now." Izaya's eyes dangerously narrowed to slits.

"I came here to get you out of here." He said as he approached the informant. Izaya immediately wheeled himself back and away from the man.

"Stay away or I'll slit your throat."

Tsugaru sighed.

"Fine. I was gonna bring you to the exit, but alright. Follow me, then."

"And why should I trust some man who looks like a copy of my worst enemy? Do you even hear yourself?" Izaya refused to budge, except to get away whenever Tsugaru made a step towards him.

The man looked up with an exasperated expression.

"Come on, we don't have time to waste. Stop being a baby and follow me or I'm carrying you all the way to the exit." He snapped at Izaya, a familiar expression of annoyance showing up on the familiar face.

"No." Izaya said petulantly and the Shizuo lookalike threw his hands up in aggravation, then launched himself at Izaya, completely ignoring the repeated slashes and stabs all over his arms and back as he took him and threw him over his shoulder.

"We're going, whether you like it or not. We need you alive." Tsugaru said, then jogged in a specific direction, leaving the wheelchair to disappear in the darkness. Izaya kept struggling and stabbing him in various places all over his back, ignoring the pain all that moving around was giving him. Tsugaru let him take his anger out on him. Not like he felt any of that any more than a regular person would mosquito bites anyway.

"Put me down this instant." Izaya ordered, but it fell on deaf ears. "Hey, are you listening to me, amoeba?! I said to put me down!"

Tsugaru grit his teeth but remained silent, he couldn't afford to mess up here. He was almost there, he only needed to go a bit further and—

Izaya opened his eyes and was met with the familiar streets of Tokyo.

He looked down at himself. He was sitting in the chair Mirai had given him.

He looked around and recognized all the buildings around him, but something was wrong. Those buildings were all familiar to him, and that was exactly why he knew something was very, very wrong.

After all, Sunshine 60 was nowhere near his apartment, yet here they were. Standing right next to each other.

He could recognize various buildings from different wards of Tokyo, all standing in the same space.

The man, Tsugaru, was gone as well. Izaya frowned.

He went back to observing the buildings. The more he looked at them, the stranger they seemed. It was looking at a word for so long it stopped looking like a word altogether. The more he stared, the less real they felt.

It was like reality was falling apart.

As he came to a realization, Izaya was startled by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stuff is happening.


	10. Chapter 10

_Around them, nothing but sand and piles of stone. Once, these stones were tall skyscrapers, standing proudly in an always-bustling city._

_Now, you could barely guess they used to be buildings at all._

_In the ruins, two teenagers watch the sun set with bitter expressions on their faces._

_Gold eyes leave the sunset dirtied with huge amounts of dust in the atmosphere to meet bright red ones._

_No words are spoken, none are needed._

_Their linked hands refuse to let each other go._

_They have nothing left but each other._

...

Izaya wheeled himself around to observe whatever had fallen so loudly just behind him. He quirked an eyebrow at the scene in front of him.

There, in front of him, was the famed Fortissimo of Ikebukuro, lying flat on his back and groaning in pain while a completely unbothered Mirai stood up from her place in his arms, unharmed. Behind them stood the hospital, with one window on the second floor opened.

"Were stairs too much for you, Shizu-chan?" Izaya asked flatly. Shizuo just shot him a half-pained, half-pissed glare.

"Fuck off, we were stuck." He growled lowly then slowly got up to his feet with a groan. "Ugh. Hurts like a bitch though."

"Yes, jumping off from buildings will often do that to you, Shizu-chan."

Shizuo just showed him the finger. Izaya smirked.

"Where d'you go anyway? There wasn't any elevator."

"Yes, there was, you just don't know how to use your eyes." Although Izaya would have rather preferred throwing himself and the wheelchair down the stairs than have lived whatever fuckery he had just gone through, thank you very much.

"...No there wasn't. We looked everywhere and didn't see any."

"Yes, there was," Izaya frowned, "How do you think I left this place? ...I can't say that said elevator behaved like it should have, though."

"Yeah, the hospital was weird too. The hall kept repeating, it pissed me off." Shizuo rubbed the back of his head. It hurt a bit, but he didn't seem to be bleeding at least. "What happened with the elevator? Did it break?"

"Ha! If only!" Izaya barked a laugh. "It's more like reality itself broke! Look around you and tell me, doesn't anything seem weird?" He spread his arms.

Shizuo didn't have to look around much to see what was wrong. The street configuration was completely different from when they'd entered the hospital, buildings standing where they shouldn't be, streets cutting off at some point and suddenly merging into another place altogether. And that wasn't the worst of it, no. The more Shizuo looked, the more abstract it became, to the point he was gradually becoming dizzy. He cringed. Izaya smiled.

"Pretty horrendous, wouldn't you say? And I'm certain the longer we stay here, the worst it'll become." Izaya's smile became sharp and his eyes narrowed. "And if this keeps up, we'll be next."

"Argh, fuck!" Shizuo was having trouble standing up straight, the constantly changing scenery making his head spin. When he looked at Izaya, the raven at first appeared to feel fine, but he could see the tenseness of his expression. He was feeling it too. "Okay, yeah, we gotta leave, but how?! We've been trying to all this time, didn't we?"

"It's simple," Izaya said and put his hands back on his lap, "All we have to do is wake up."

Shizuo paused. _Huh?_ Izaya noticed his confusion and elaborated.

"This place is too messed up to be reality, Shizu-chan. We're dreaming. Or maybe _I_ am?" He tilted his head to the side, looking pensive. "Perhaps you're only a figment of my imagination. Perhaps I am in some sort of coma. Or perhaps our minds have been put in a simulation, as sci-fi as it may sound. Certainly, wouldn't be any stranger than headless women on bikes, wouldn't it?"

A dream. They were dreaming?

...In hindsight, it would explain everything that happened to them. Waking up with missing memories, the repeating days, the random flashbacks, the way their bodies were suddenly weaker.

...The way Tokyo, no, reality itself was breaking down as they spoke.

One odd detail remained, however. Shizuo looked over at the kid, whose expression hadn't changed at all.

"Ah, so you've noticed. Maybe you have slightly more brain cells than I estimated!" Izaya piped up with a big smile. "You're probably wondering where she came from, yes? After all, if this _is_ a dream, or otherwise a construction from our own minds, she should have come from our memories, yet neither of us knew her." He twirled his finger in the air. "This," He pointed at Mirai, "Is our way out."

"...Huh?" Shizuo was dumbfounded. How had the flea arrived to this conclusion? The kid...Mari? _Mari_ was their way out?

Izaya didn't bother explaining his reasoning and instead met the now oddly focused eyes of the creature that looked like a child.

"You can get us out of this place, am I right?" He asked her.

"Yes." She said, but otherwise did nothing, seemingly waiting for something. Izaya nodded in understanding.

"Very well, then." His smile disappeared, and he spoke coldly. "Send us back to our reality."

.

.

.

**"Affirmative. Now removing subject M0** **-alpha** **and subject R0-alpha from Data Collection and Alteration Environment. Please wait."**

...

_Two young men sit together in the remains of what used to be a bustling metropolis. The one with eyes like blood sits limply between the legs of the other one, eyes open but glazed over and body mostly unresponsive. The young man behind him seems to be fiddling with something on his back, golden eyes entirely focused on the task at hand._

_The young man at the front suddenly jolts awake. He trashes as his friend holds him down with slender yet abnormally strong arms until he slowly calms down. He doesn't release him, however._

_The red-eyed young man relaxes against the warm chest and gently starts petting wild, brown hair._

_No words need to be said. They both think the same thing._

_This is the third time this week._

_They don't have much time left._

...

With a full-body jolt, Shizuo opened his eyes as a gasp tore itself out of his body. He immediately closed his eyes again, blinded by bright lights right above his head. He could vaguely make out muffled sounds around him but ignored them, too preoccupied by the splitting headache he had woken up with.

Gradually, the headache slowly faded away, and with it the bright lights. He opened his eyes again and was met with a white ceiling.

He looked at it in confusion, then moved his gaze to look down at himself. He was strapped down to some table, various cables attached to his body.

He was also very naked.

He tried moving a hand, but his movements were sluggish.

The noise around him was becoming clearer, though not anymore understandable. There seemed to be multiple agitated voices, speaking in... was that English? It sounded like English. Too bad he didn't understand a word of it.

He turned his head towards the sound and saw a group of people dressed in lab coats. They seemed to be arguing, until one of them spotted him looking and jumped away with a yelp, startling the others who then looked in his direction as well, and then had the exact same reaction.

They yelled at each other some more then all scrambled towards various weird machines all around him.

A few beeps here and there, and he suddenly was feeling incredibly dizzy and tired. That's when he realized just what those strange people were doing to him.

They were putting him under.

Familiar rage surging in him, Shizuo grit his teeth and _pulled_. The supposedly sturdy straps broke away easily under the strain and Shizuo slowly lifted his body up until he was sitting down.

The people in the lab coats yelled some more. More beeping.

His head hurt so he tore away the cables there, then he proceeded to remove all the other ones on his body without a care.

His mind was hazy, the whole world felt like it went in slow motion. He vaguely registered the scientists(?) exiting the room, only to be replaced by people in dark uniforms.

What happened next was a blur.

The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by battered, bleeding (but alive...probably) bodies, and his own body was wracked with pain.

On closer inspection, he could see many holes oozing blood all over his body.

So, he was shot, huh.

Determined to get out of this strange place, and still very pissed, Shizuo approached the wall and gave it a swift kick, creating a makeshift door for him to pass through.

In the next room were more scientist-looking people, who all ran away in fear at the sight of the very bloody, very angry, and still very naked man.

He was surprised when he heard a female voice right next to him. It seemed someone hadn't fled at the sight of the monster, but that wasn't the most surprising thing, no.

The most surprising thing...was that the voice spoke Japanese.

"Some people are trying to work here; would you mind not destroying everything?" A woman in a lab coat asked, though it sounded more like a reprimand. She looked annoyed, then disgusted once she gave him a once-over. "Also please put some clothes on."

He stared at her blankly, then promptly passed out right there.

"Oh, wonderful." The woman, who had seemed vaguely familiar, sighed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As an apology for not updating in a while, this one's a bit longer.

Izaya was used to waking up in a silent, empty house as soon as dawn broke. He had always been used to the quiet since his early childhood, though it had gotten significantly less quiet these past few years.

Case in point: the annoying giggling he could hear suspiciously close to his ears.

He grabbed a small wrist without even bothering to open his eyes.

"What do you think you're doing?" He asked, opening a single red eye to look at the little devil to his left.

Said devil only looked at him with a bright smile.

"Waking you up!"

"I have no need for you to wake me up. Much less with a glass of water to the face." He kept hold of the wrist and used his other hand to retrieve the offending glass and place it on his nightstand. "Now go be productive by waking up your sleepyhead of a sister."

"I want pancakes!" The little girl exclaimed, then ran out of her brother's room and into her own.

He sighed, passing a hand through short hair before finally escaping the warm comfort of his bed sheets to get ready for the day.

"...Guess I'm making pancakes, huh."

"Iza-nii, my tummy hurts!" His left hand was insistently tugged on by a tiny force. He didn't move his gaze from the road.

"That's because you scarfed down all those pancakes like a starving animal, Mairu. You barely left any for your sister."

Said sister, to his right, kept completely silent, obediently following her brother to their new school.

It still weirded him out quite a bit.

Just a few days before, the twins had rolled dice and determined new personalities for themselves, all over something Izaya had said in passing to tease them. And now here they were: an excessively bubbly Mairu and a mostly stoic Kururi. They had even altered their appearances, Kururi requesting a haircut, while Mairu demanded that her brother braid her hair.

He had said there was no meaning to them being twins since they'd never be their own individuals, and this was their answer. It was ridiculous, if you asked him, but whatever, if it amused them. They'd get tired of that eventually and return to being themselves, and that'd be it. Until then, Izaya would indulge them in their little game of charades.

Today was their first day in elementary school, yet neither sister seemed nervous at the idea. Izaya himself wasn't too worried, those little monsters were a handful, but they were social butterflies through and through.

He was a bit curious about how the other children and teachers would react to their...slightly extreme new selves, but he doubted he would be allowed to stay with them at their school to do some people-watching.

And he still had school to attend as well, anyway.

"Just don't overdo it and you'll be fine, but if you're still feeling sick, go tell the teacher...here we are."

They arrived at the school entrance. Children and their parents were passing through the school gates. Some stayed together until the very last moment, while others quickly parted ways with a pat on the head and a 'See you later'.

Others had...some more trouble.

Kururi had released his hand and looked at the courtyard with bright eyes, momentarily forgetting to keep her indifferent persona on, clearly excited at the prospect of making new friends.

Mairu, on the other hand...well, she still had yet to release his hand.

"I don't have all day, Mairu." He told her, squeezing her hand to shake her out of her stupor. She was trying to be brave, but it was obvious she was close to tears.

She said nothing, and Kururi looked back at her curiously.

For the second time that day, Izaya sighed. Then, he got to his knees to be at eye level with Mairu. Around him, he could hear mothers gushing about the little scene they were making.

Before their little dice roll idea, Mairu had always been the crybaby of the pair that the twins made, and her sister had been more of a troublemaker. Of course, after so little time Izaya wasn't surprised she still had trouble keeping the bubbly act up when in an unknown place full of unknown people.

"Just cry, Mairu, let it out, you'll feel better."

"I-I'm n-not gonna cry!" She said, eyes full of tears.

"You're already doing it, might as well just let it go." He said in an indifferent tone.

Even so, she didn't allow herself to cry out, letting tears roll down her cheeks in silence. Alright, another tactic it was going to be then.

"Didn't you two agree that you'd be the social one?"

She nodded, still crying.

"Then why are you being such a baby about it? If you're going to be making friends for the both of you, then you're losing precious time here, don't you think?"

He knew exactly why she was making such a fuss. Separation anxiety was quite common for children her age who started school for the first time, and although he wasn't their father and never acted as such, he was the only older person taking care of them most of the time. It made sense that she would have trouble suddenly spending time away from him.

But he couldn't just stay there, he also had school to attend, and it would do her no favor if he were to indulge her and stay with her. She wouldn't become independent if he just hovered around her all the time.

He beckoned Kururi over, then took her hand. He released Mairu's, earning himself a tearful gasp, but quickly brought their hands together so they were holding each other instead of him.

"You two want to be the perfect human being? Then act as one. If you can't do something, then let Kururi do it instead, and if _she_ can't do something, then it's up to you to take over. That's what you agreed on, didn't you?"

The twins observed their brother, then each other. They didn't say anything, but their faces showed they had come to some sort of mutual agreement.

They nodded, then Kururi piped up.

"Brave. (Today, I'll be the brave one.)"

"T-that's right! I can't do it t-today, so Kuru-nee will do it!"

Izaya smiled and pat both their heads.

"Good, now go to class and don't terrorize your classmates too much. Well, unless they're mean to you then by all means, go all out, just don't get caught. I'll come pick you up later."

"Bye."

"Bye-bye, Iza-nii!"

He stood back up and waved at the now smiling twins (though Mairu still had tears all over her face), then finally left the elementary school.

What a handful, those two were, really.

School was uneventful, almost boring really. Shinra had talked his head off about that (ironically) headless so-called 'girlfriend' of his, and classes had gone agonizingly slowly, made only slower by the fact Izaya...already knew most of what they had taught. He got to do some people-watching, at the very least.

He couldn't help but feel like something was missing, though. The day was too calm.

...

Once more, Shizuo opened his eyes only to be greeted by a white ceiling and all kinds of wires attached to his body.

At least he wasn't strapped down this time, and someone had been gracious enough to dress him up in some simple hospital robes.

He wished they had given him underwear, though.

"So, Sleeping Beauty wakes. Although _you_ would qualify more as the Beast from another fairy tale." A bored female voice caught his attention. He slowly moved his gaze from the ceiling to the woman sitting to his right, who appeared more interested in whatever she was reading than the man who had just awoken.

"...W-wh..." He tried to croak out a question, but only ended up having a coughing fit.

"I would not suggest trying to speak. Your body, as resilient as it is, is still weak from the absolutely idiotic thing you did a few days ago." She still didn't look up from her papers. "Honestly, who even tears off wires from their own head? You're lucky you only gave yourself a three-day long coma instead of permanent and surely lethal brain damage."

She finally put down whatever she was reading and turned her indifferent gaze to her patient(?).

"I will have to admit, though, that you are surprisingly resilient, I can certainly understand why that man would be so obsessed with you, Heiwajima-san."

Shizuo squinted at her. So, she knew his name. It made sense if she was his doctor or something, though she honestly looked more like a crazy and possibly evil scientist.

And he still couldn't shake off the feeling that he had already seen her somewhere...Wait.

Wasn't she the Flea's secretary or something? He vaguely remembered an ice-cold woman occasionally opening the door when he'd come to that louse's apartment in order to kill him.

So Izaya was behind his current state, then. He growled. As soon as he got his strength back, he'd go find and kill that fucking bastard!

_Monster._

He gasped.

_He barely feels the weight of lithe body he throws right through some building's window._

He clung to the sheets with all his might, his body stiffening with tension.

_Do it._

He felt a sharp pain in his head. The woman glanced at him curiously.

_Everybody's gone._

_The same day. Over and over again._

_The terrible sound of bones being crushed under a powerful fist._

_Red, emotionless eyes._

_The Flea is standing, arms limp._

_"Had things been different, could we have been friends?" He asks his friend. He would have simply used him, she says._

_The Flea in a wheelchair._

_Not a person is left. Or rather, nobody was even here in the first place._

_A never-ending corridor. Reality falling apart._

_Two kids that remind him a lot of the both of them. They're best friends._

_A flash, then the bastard is gone, never to be seen again._

_The city doesn't change, and neither does he. Yet he can't help but feel like something is missing._

"I...za..." Another cough. He hears a sigh near him.

"Of course, you'd be just as obsessed as him." She muttered then went behind him. She messed with some wires, attaching some to the bed and straight up removing others (properly this time). Finally, he felt the bed he was lying on be pushed around.

They exited the room he was in and found themselves in a hallway similar to the one he had explored earlier with...

...Who was it again?

Lost in thought, he didn't realize they had gone to another section of the building until he found himself being pushed into another room, vastly different from the one he woke up in but still somewhat familiar.

He heard the woman speak in English to the other people in the room, and they left the room. She moved his bed right next to the one that was already present in the room, then fiddled with the settings until he was slightly propped up.

When he turned his head to his left where the other bed was, he paused at what he saw.

There was a person asleep there, but that wasn't the most surprising thing. Various cables were attached to their head, as well as their other limbs. Some of the cables were connected to a machine Shizuo was unfortunately very familiar with from his childhood: a heart rate monitor. It reported a slow but steady heartbeat.

His focus wasn't on the various wires and beeping machines however, but on the face of the person lying down.

His hair was longer, and he was paler than the last time he had seen him, but there was no mistaking this person's identity.

"...Izaya."

...

He went about his day as usual. Pretending to listen in classes, ignoring Shinra's rambling, messing with random students to gauge their reactions...

How boring.

When he went to pick up the twins later that day, they had seemed to be more comfortable in their new roles than this morning. Mairu wasn't crying anymore, and Kururi stayed quiet while she chatted various people's ears off. They were still holding hands, he noticed.

Well, for kids their age, it wasn't that big of a deal. Siblings who got along certainly were easier to deal with than those who were constantly squabbling.

The three of them came back to an empty house, as was usual, and Izaya cooked dinner to feed the little black holes before putting them to bed (an easy task for Kururi, not so much for the energetic Mairu).

Back in his own room, he quickly did the ridiculously easy homework and spent some time on the computer, looking for all kinds of rumors and chatting using various personas.

"So even back then you couldn't help but mess with people, huh."

Izaya quickly spun around, letting his chair fall to the ground and swung a knife in the direction he heard the voice, but it was easily dodged.

In front of him stood an unarmed and vaguely amused man with messy brown hair, golden eyes, and wearing hospital clothes.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it me  
> am back  
> enjoy

"Who are you and when did you get in here?" Izaya demanded coldly, hand holding the knife shaking slightly.

The man put his hands up in a sign of non-aggression.

"So, you don't remember me, huh."

“Don’t act as if we know each other.” Izaya gave the man a cold, hostile smile. “I remember every single person I meet, and you aren’t one of them.” He stated.

The man mumbled something to himself, earning himself a dark glare from the on-edge teen. He shrugged his shoulders, keeping his hands up. “Well, I guess you’re right on that. We technically haven't met yet.”

  
  
  
  


…

  
  
  
  


Shizuo stayed unmoving for an unnervingly long time. Namie had had time to make herself comfortable at one of the desks in the room, filling various reports on the computer while she waited for her subject.

Each time she took a peek at Shizuo, the scene was the same. Izaya kept on sleeping, his heart rate a regular beeping, although a bit slow. Meanwhile, Shizuo simply stared at him.

He was so still, Namie would have almost thought he fell back asleep, if not for the fact his eyes were open and focused on the sleeping man’s face. She had no idea what he was looking for, but she had decided a long time ago to stop trying to understand those two and their relationship with each other.

She thought their obsession with each other was creepy at best, but she wasn’t exactly one to speak, what with her own twisted affections for her biological brother.

_ Let them be obsessed with each other _ , she thought,  _ it’s none of my business anyway _ .

She spent about two hours reviewing reports in silence, almost forgetting the other people present in the room until she heard shuffling behind her. When she spun her chair around to look, she saw Shizuo trying to mess with his bed. She scoffed and stood up, slapping his hand away and adjusting the inclination herself.

“Finally had your fill?” She asked in a bored tone.

“… I just had to check.” Shizuo said vaguely, moving uncomfortably in the bed and messing with his wires.

“Check what?” She slapped his hand again.

“… Stuff.” He took back his hand, but gradually moved it closer to the wires again.

“Helpful.” She spoke sarcastically then narrowed her eyes at him. “Touch those one more time, and I’m putting you under.” She warned coldly.

He immediately put his hands on his lap right where she could see them, looking like a child who had just been caught red-handed trying to steal from the cookie jar.

“That’s better.” She nodded and went behind the bed to roll it out of the room. As they left, she gave a nod to someone who appeared to be some kind of security guard, who then said something in their radio, maybe to call the people who were there previously back. Shizuo wouldn’t know, though. It was all in English.

He was strongly beginning to regret not paying more attention to his English class in high school. In his defense, though, he had a flea making it impossible for him to follow any class. It was a miracle he had even graduated, in all honesty.

… Speaking of fleas.

“Hey, uhhhh” He started, then realized he didn’t remember the woman’s name. Not like he had seen her much to start with, much too preoccupied with trying to kill the vermin.

“My name is Yagiri. Yagiri Namie. Call me by my last name, not my first name. No ‘chan’ either or I will make sure you regret every decision you’ve made in your life till now.” She casually threatened in a bored tone. Somehow, that made it even scarier.

“Right, huh… Miss Yagiri.” He spoke awkwardly, more used to using people’s first names with no honorifics at all. Seeing her make no reaction, he continued. “What happened to us? Me and the flea, I mean.”

“Ah, so you’re finally asking. You took your sweet time. Too worried about your dear rival to think about anything else?” She taunted him.

“You didn’t tell me.” He bristled but otherwise stayed put in his bed, not wanting to incur the woman’s wrath.

“I was told not to tell you unless you asked. If you’re unhappy with that, you can go complain to the Director.” She was completely unfazed by the anger in his voice.

She rolled him back into what he assumed was his room, then took a seat near him. “But since you asked, I will tell you: you were brainwashed, and we captured you to undo that.”

He stared at her blankly, and she returned his stare with a bored one.

“… What.”

  
  
  
  


…

  
  
  
  


After their altercation, the suspicious man had disappeared in front of Izaya’s eyes, but not before telling him they’d be “seeing each other again soon”.

Today, a week later, he was still unsure if he had dreamed the whole thing up or if he had just witnessed a paranormal event. It wouldn’t be too unlikely; after all, his best friend’s roommate was a headless Dullahan, who was to say mysterious, handsome men who appeared just to say something cryptic then disappeared didn’t exist?

After a few days, however, the incident had simply…left his thoughts. He had humans to observe after all, and he had found a few gangs to mess with as well, so while his classes were still boring as all hell, he had found his thoughts occupied by schemes instead of that strange man in the hospital robes.

Which was why he was completely taken off-guard by what happened that morning.

“Alright everyone, to your seats.” His homeroom teacher asked with a clap, and those who weren’t already in their seats (like Shinra, who had been ranting about his headless roommate again) all went to sit at their desks, some slower than others. Their teacher waited for everyone to be seated, then, instead of starting class like usual, he instead made an announcement.

“All right everyone, today we’re going to welcome a new classmate. You can come in, Kaikyou-kun.” He called to the door.

Around Izaya, murmurs could be heard. Some were excited, others simply curious about the new student. He would consider himself part of the second category, personally. He loved humans after all, so of course he would be curious about meeting a new one. Would this one be interesting? Did he have unusual hobbies? Interests? A weird personality? Was he a loner? A bully? Was he aggressive? Calm?

Or would he be as utterly  _ boring _ as the rest?

As he sat there theorizing, however, all his thoughts came to a full stop when the student in question actually entered the room, wrote his name on the board, then stood relaxed in front of the class.

Their eyes met, and Izaya sat there, frozen. All noise around him disappeared into the background, the murmurs, the voice of the teacher introducing the student, every single human in the room completely vanished from his consciousness until there were only two left: himself, and  _ him _ .

Messy brown hair, golden eyes.

Looking at him with a relaxed expression, hands in his pockets, and wearing the Raijin school uniform, was the man he had seen the week before.

“Kaikyou Tsugaru. Nice to meet you.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *dabs*

_ Were anyone left alive, they would have noticed the footprints imprinted in the sand. Two pairs, one slightly smaller than the other, both side-by-side. Soon, though, the breeze would make the sand travel, and the traces would disappear under layers of dust. _

_ There would be no trace of their existence. _

_ “It’s okay, we’ll be okay.” An airy voice could barely be heard in the wasteland. _

_ That was their penance. _

_ “Soon, everything will be over.” _

  
  
  
  


...

  
  
  
  


“… What.”

“I meant just that. You two were brainwashed to hell and back and were causing havoc.” Namie stated plainly.

Shizuo blinked at her owlishly. His groggy brain had seemingly short-circuited.

“... What?” He babbled. “... Why? How?”

“I could tell you all the details we have, but I don’t think you are quite stable enough to understand it all right now. I think it’s safer to give you a summary of what happened, but I first need you to answer some questions.” She said, taking a notebook and pen from her coat and setting them on her lap. “Will you cooperate?” She asked, but her tone made it clear he didn’t actually have any choice in the matter, so he nodded.

Heiwajima Shizuo had never in his life felt quite as intimidated as he presently did in this woman’s presence.

“Perfect.” She said. “First, what is the last thing you remember before waking up here?”

Shizuo took a moment to think about it. She waited patiently, letting him take his time to put his jumbled memories in relatively chronological order. She had been assigned to him specifically, so it wasn’t like she had much else to do but wait.

“It’s...fuzzy. And some of it feels kinda like a dream.” He admitted.

“That’s fine. Tell me what you remember, it might help jog your memory.”

“I remember... I was in Tokyo with the flea, but there was nobody except us and...” He blanked. Wasn’t there someone else? There was something about that person that had been surprising to him, but...

He was startled out of his reverie by fingers snapping in front of his face.

“Focus, Heiwajima.” She said curtly, yet her tone hadn’t felt reproachful at all.

“Right, my bad. Well, the city was weird, it felt kinda fake? And it looked like Shinjuku and Ikebukuro had merged together. That was a dream, right?”

“Not exactly a dream, but close enough. It certainly wasn’t reality. Shinjuku and Ikebukuro remain separate in this reality.”

Perhaps it was because of her no-nonsense attitude, or the fact that she was clearly a woman of science, but her simple words and logic helped Shizuo feel more...grounded to reality, somehow. He felt his mind clear up slightly from the dazing combination of drugs and a coma.

“Right, yeah. Wasn’t real, it was too weird.”

“Were there any other strange details that caught your attention, beside the merging of two districts? We had no visuals of the simulation, so any details of what it appeared like from the inside is valuable to us.”

_ Simulation _ , huh.

“Uh, well, I remember waking up in my apartment multiple times, but I don’t remember actually falling asleep. I think I blacked out at some point, though?” He said, unsure.

“Tell me more. Try to include as many details as possible.” She seemed genuinely interested, in her own nonchalant way, writing in her notebook at light speed.

“I was looking for people, and I found the flea... I mean Izaya. I was pissed and tried to throw some shit— I mean stuff at him, but I couldn't. It was like all my strength had been sapped out or something.” He gestured vaguely. “So I decided to just punch him instead and...” He trailed off.

“And? What happened next?”

“I’m...not sure. It suddenly gets very blurry then. I think that’s when I passed out. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in my bed again.”

He took Namie’s continuous writing as encouragement to keep talking.

“Then it went pretty much the same way. I was looking for some people, found the f— Izaya.”

“Wait.” She halted him in his rambling. “Just tell me this first, did you remember the previous ‘day’, so to speak?”

Shizuo was about to say he did but...he hadn’t.

Until a specific point in time.

“Ah. Actually. I didn’t. While I was looking around, something made me think of Izaya, and it all came back... I think. I got this horrible headache, and suddenly I was remembering the ‘day’ before and other stuff as well. I think some of the memories were real.”

“All those memories were real, Heiwajima.” She said in a strangely serious tone. “True, some of these you made while in the simulation, but they were all real.”

Why she felt the need to insist on the reality of his memories, Shizuo wasn’t quite sure.

“... I see.” He coughed awkwardly at the sudden intense display, then kept going. “So, I remembered a bunch of stuff, but it was very jumbled. I could hear some stuff Izaya had told me, I felt fire at some point, too. I think I saw a bunch of those red-eyed zombies, the ones that keep talking about love and stuff.”

“Saika children.” Namie said.

“Right, those. Then the headache got worse, and I saw more stuff, I think it happened later. They were mostly stuff I’d probably thought at some point...”

_ Monster. _

_ He had promised himself, after this. Never again. _

_ That was all he was good at. _

_ Violence. Destruction. _

Namie stared in silence as Shizuo seemed to be coming upon a realization, the memories gradually fitting together like puzzle pieces.

“Actually, some of it I remembered when you brought me to Izaya’s room.” He said, gaze unfocused as he was concentrating fully on piecing together his memories. “The fight I saw, it was our last one, I think. Then Izaya disappeared before I could finish him off. Things were pretty calm without him around, but then the stuff with that other gang happened...something about snakes?”

“Snake Arms. I’m impressed, you remember much more than I expected.” Namie said, and it almost felt like a compliment.

“But I’m missing something!” He said, frustrated. “I think I remember what happened until then, but after that it’s just blank!”

He went to scratch at his hair in a frustrated gesture, but Namie reached out and slapped, once more, his hand away.

“No need to stress yourself over this, those memories will come back in due time.” Her calm, even tone made him relax in his bed. “Now that we went over what you  _ do  _ remember, which, I must reiterate, is much more than expected considering the situation, I can tell you more about what happened. The question is: are you feeling up to it?” She asked.

“I...” Shizuo tried to answer.  _ Was he _ up to it? He thought, when they had started this little ‘session’, that he would be. But the strain of trying to piece himself and his memories together had been much more exhausting than he anticipated. He gave the woman sitting beside him a helpless expression.

She nodded, as if she had predicted his reaction.

“Alright, then we will stop for today. Someone will come and bring you food very soon, then you will be left to rest.” She said, standing up from her chair and brushing up her skirt.

At the mention of food, his stomach made itself known with a loud rumbling. He pressed his hands over his belly with a blush, as if it would somehow undo this. Namie seemingly didn’t care, and continued giving her instructions.

“Your body is probably still too weak to hold itself up, so if you want to relieve yourself, you will need to call a nurse, there’s a button right there on the side of your bed. Don’t abuse it, but do use it when needed.” She said, pointing to his left side. He already dreaded the moment he would need to go. “Now then, I will be on my way. Good evening, Heiwajima.”

Just as she was opening the door to leave, Shizuo called out for her.

“Ah, wait! I’ve just got one question before you leave.”

Namie looked over her shoulder, not bothering to turn around. “What is it?”

“Is this a hospital?” He asked.

She kept silent for a few seconds, then gave him a smile that chilled him to the core, yet reminded him very strongly of a certain informant’s.

“How innocent.” She said simply, and left a frazzled Shizuo alone in his room.

  
  
  
  


...

  
  
  
  


“So, ‘Kaikyou-kun’, huh?”

It was lunchtime, and Izaya found himself alone on the roof with that new transfer student, Shinra mysteriously absent that day.

“I told you we’d meet again soon.” The boy with messy brown hair told him, sitting completely relaxed against the railing, seemingly enjoying the sun’s light. Izaya, who was standing against the very same railing, scoffed.

“That’s obviously a fake name. It’s ‘Tsugaru Kaikyou Fuyu Geshiki’ isn’t it?”

“The folk song. Yep.” He admitted with an unrepentant smile.

“I’m curious as to how you managed to convince them it was your real name.”

The boy, ‘Tsugaru’, shrugged. “I have my ways.”

Izaya gave him an unimpressed stare. For some reason, that boy made him particularly annoyed, and he had no idea why. He normally fancied himself a considerably patient person. One had to be, when their best and only friend was one of the most annoying people alive.

“So, what do you want from me?” Izaya went straight to the point.

“How conceited of you.” Tsugaru teased, but Izaya didn’t take the bait.

“You’ve somehow managed to convince people that your real name is Kaikyou Tsugaru despite it being obviously ripped off a folk song, down to the kanji, but simply rearranged, somehow managed to make yourself look like a high-schooler, and I happen to be the only one who’s aware of the fact that this is all an illusion.”

“An  _ illusion _ , heh.” Tsugaru muttered under his breath, amused. Izaya ignored him.

“If you have the ability to do all that, then I doubt you would have let me know unless you wanted something from me. So, speak up. I’ll warn you though, I love humans, but I don’t care about the supernatural, spirit-san.”

_ ‘Spirit-san’, so that’s your conclusion, huh? Interesting. _

Tsugaru smiled.

“Believe it or not, I don’t want something out of you. Or rather, it’s more like I want to give you something.” Tsugaru spoke calmly, uncaring of the annoyed aura he could feel coming from the high-schooler standing next to him.

“Give me something? What would you even give me?” Izaya asked, wary, but still a bit curious. He couldn’t help but be at least the slightest bit excited from such an unpredictable situation, even if it had to do with the supernatural.

“I can’t tell you. You’ll know when you have it.” Tsugaru answered vaguely. Izaya quirked an eyebrow at that.

“And when will that be?”

“You’ll know when the time is right.” Tsugaru looked up to him and gave him a mysterious smile, which earned him an irked scoff.

“Ugh, fine. Be mysterious, mister handsome spirit-or-whatever-it-is-you-are, if it amuses you so. So I’ll know what it is when I get it, and I’ll know when that will be when the time is right. Whatever. Awesome. Can’t wait.” He snapped and finally sat down, a pout on his face. The brunette to his side looked amused.

“Did you just call me handsome?”

“... _ That’s _ what you remembered out of everything I said?” Izaya sounded exasperated, and Tsugaru laughed at his plight.


End file.
